PRIME TIME: CANNATECH SYDNEY DAY 1

In Australia, the inaugural CannaTech Sydney Conference got underway on Sunday, October 28th with a packed room of 320 registrants. Organizer Saul Kaye noted that 40% of participants were from Australia, 5% from New Zealand and the remainder traveled “more than 24 hours” to attend.  In other words, there were a lot of folks from Europe, North America, Israel, and Asia.  The conference will run three days with this first day devoted to the business of cannabis. There was a wide range of topics ranging from cannabis business opportunities in Latin America to the establishment of an international mercantile cannabis trading exchange.Normally I attend conferences that are geared forwards patient advocacy and research. Those topics will come in the following two days. Today’s conference marked the first business conference I have attended and I found it to be an exhilarating experience. Particularly impressive were presentations by Bruce Linton, chairman and CEO of Canopy Growth, a Canadian Company and Ron Lipsky of the Australian MGC Pharmaceuticals along with his associate Nitin Mantri of RMIT University.Mr. Linton outlined a positive vision of cannabis growth which emphasized the multiple facets of cannabis and the numerous areas of potential growth both in terms of business and overall knowledge. Mr. Lipsky and Dr. Mantri discussed the International Library of Cannabinoids Project that will encompass comprehensive information on Medical Cannabis research, including genetic information on strains, their Cannabinoid profile, and their effectiveness in treating various disorders through research and clinical data.Mary’s Medicinals co-founder and CEO, Lynn Honderd, appeared as a panelist discussing “Regulation’s Role in Global Partnerships and Cannabis Business Decisions.”  The discussion revealed the wide array of regulatory problems that hinder the growth and development of cannabis as a medicinal and nutritional substance.Image caption: Elaine Darby, Managing Director of AusCann Group Holdings and Lynn Honderd, Co-founder and CEO of Mary’s Medicinals, share a light moment during a discussion of the role of regulation in global partnerships and cannabis business decisions. -Alice